Smuggler Archive

OK appologies if someone else has come up with this, some bits are borrowed and inspired from the various threads i have read on the subject. Also i have posted this somewhere else, but this is more in depth (appologies for length how ever long it gets) and thought out.

couple of thing first, ideally we would have a player to player smuggling system, but this will be very difficult to implement, so its both effective and hasn't got a too negative effect on other professions, so my idea is based on npc missions. Second NPC missions have a tendancy to become boring and repative (Mokk missions on dant for example) and so this tries to combat that problem.

1. As many people have commented missions should come from an NPC sat having a drink or something in cantina's and taverns. out of the way in a "smoky" corner. keeping the RP element of this.

2. Once you reach Novice smuggler you recieve a smuggler reputation faction (scaled from 0 to 100) starting at 0 (all non smugglers are -5, so cannot access missions) it is impossible for a smuggler to drop below 0, and the scale is independant of the skill of the smuggler (reason will follow later).

You begin as i said with reputation of 0, so you goto the NPC and can only access the most basic missions (20 levels of missions 5 pts seperation), if you succeed the mission you will recieve the reward and reputation points. the missions will be deliver to X in a set time. there will be penalties (to follow) regarding failure or late delivery (more detail at 4).
the levels will offer more challenging and lucrative missions the higher up the scale, so at 95-100, the missions are very very very difficult but pay very very well)

3. When you fail a mission you will be given a choice (failure caused by death or missd second deadline of one hour after main deadline) to either; pay the value of the reward and recieve a lesser penalty, or take the full penalty.

4. rewards and penalties.

As you progress up the scale you will get more difficult missions, with higher rewards, but also with increasing cost of failure. for example at 1st few levels, the cost of failure would be loss of 1 reputation point and no reward, where as success would be +1 reputation point and collect reward. if you are late (within 1 hour of deadline otherwise failure) then you will recieve the reward but no reputation point. and failure but buying your way out will result in no change to reputation.

But at a mid level, you may get 2 points for success, lose 4 for failure, 0 for late, and lose 1 for paying your way out of trouble.

then higher levels may carry +3 points for success, -6 for failure and a Bounty placed on your head, 0 for late and -6 but no bounty for buying your way out.

I believe a system like this will provide a challenge to the players, and the missions should be set up, so you can't blast your way through (except maybe with a decent group) make them get very hard the higher you go, idea would be to have only 1 or 2 at level 95-100 per server. It will have a "i want to climb higher" element, providing longevity, and also "i want the be the best in the galaxy".

5. How to do it all.

It has ben said before that placing scans at starports will cause lag, and then there will always be someone who wants to lag the server "for a laugh" (idiots) so this approach is unrealistic.

Instead, when the mission is accepted a few different things will spawn. the delivery location (at least 2 km from any town pc or non pc) it would be a new type of base if you like, where the delivery target is inside a building. Imperial patrols will spawn in the areas around the location (upto 500m out) also ST's need to be made much tougher in CU for this to work properly (and they can garantee to knock u off your bike if spotted within 45m). at the base would be a range of Imperials, here you will more than likely get scanned, as the missions get harder, you will rely more on your smuggler skills (new skill /smuggle) so at master you havea higher chance of success. if detected, they will call for help, giving you time to panic shot and leg it (if quick) thus resetting the NPC's. if they don't detect you can make your way in to the drop off.
If you are spotted on the way to the camp by a patrol, they must be able to kill you unless you successfully run. in addition being spotted and scanned a newer patrol will spawn between you and the base, thus you have to change your route.


6. JTL

This covers the ground game, with JTL there are additional risks of being scanned by patrols in space, (spawn between A and B randomly).

Now i haven't played JTL (I'm UK and apparenlty not available in UK till the 12th now ) so some people may be able to help with the JTL content (if more is wanted) or even make same structure available purely JTL.

7. combat within smuggling.

Smugglers are not combat specialists, but they can look after themselves if they have to, so for balancing the levels of mission and the size of the force you may meet. NO player master elite/combat can solo blast through the mission past level 40, past this point you either need a group or to smuggle. at level 75 you cannot blast through the base without dying. regardless of group.

This means if you want to be good, then you are going to have to SMUGGLE. not spam UH3 or SS2 till everythng is dead.

Oh and one more point, the imps at the base will respawn 1 minute after being killed so there will be someone there is a combat dude(ette) kills your base mobs. although last i checked poaching missions and mobs is against the rules anyway.

OK i think that is everything, if i have missed anything or ppl have comments, improvements etc then let me know

imodi

sry, something went wrong

Oh before i forget. as i have said there are 20 levels of difficulty with this, when getting a mission, you can still access the lower missions upto that point, eg ur at level 12, u can see missions from 1 to 12 in difficulty. maybe at converse stage, u can have an option, take highest mission i can, and browse all missions.

reason for this, say your stuck at 76 points, you can't complete the level 16 missions, but rather than keep failing and getting no-where you can take a level 12 or 15 for practive, or just for fun and try 16 again some time.

other wise people be bouncing all over the place only earning every other mission or 3. and getting bounties (or going skint) very quickly

imodi

- Ondal (on Infinity)
Master Smuggler - Looking for Weapon and/or Armor smith connection.

the only problem is the game will only let you scan a disabled ship so by that standard the imps would a have to disable you, then scan your ship and then say, OOPs sorry when they don't find any contraband.

LINA INVERSESmuggler/Politician/PilotLINA' INVERSECommando/PilotFLURRY SERVER

Hhhhmmmmm, told u i hadn't played it, in that case the only thing i can thnk of off the top of my head is that teh mission imp spawns, must only be searching for you, and when find u, have preset chances (ie its completely staged) but this may cause problems not sure, not even sure if teh engine would support what is essentailly a scripted sequence like that

imodi

DOH!!!

still smiling though